Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has again lambasted Professor of History at the Faculty of Humanities, Maitama Sule University, Kano, Umar Muhammad Labado, for saying Benue belongs to the Fulani by conquest.
He said Labdo was only ignorant and bereft of history.
The former presidential aide disagreed with the assertion and gave insight to the history Labado was recalling in his claim.
Fani-Kayode wrote: “For Professor Ladbo to essentially say that “the ‘fact’ that we Fulani did not kill all those we subjugated and all the indigenous people we met, defeated in battle, conquered and enslaved is something that Nigerians should be grateful for” is cruel, demeaning, dishonourable, insulting, disingenuous and shameful.
“Worst of all it is not true. The fact of the matter is that the Fulani conquerors slaughtered more people in their series of jihads in northern Nigeria than ANY other invasion force in the history of Africa.
“Has this so-called “professor” never heard about the barbarity and genocide committed by Usman Dan Fodio when he offered either “the sword or the Koran” to those he conquered in the north?
“Has he never heard of the massacres and mass murders that accompanied the Fulani jihads, the destruction of the Habe empire and the establishment of the Caliphate?
“Ignorance is a terrible thing but deceit and historical revisionism is even worse. To say that the Fulani were gentle and kind in their conquests of parts of northern Nigeria and in their quest to establish their caliphate and forcefully spread Islam is a lie from the pit of hell.
“It is like saying that Lucifer loved God and never rebelled against him or that Hitler’s Nazis showed kindness to the Jews or that the white slave-owners of the pre-civil war “confederate” southern states of the United States of America loved their black slaves.
“The truth is that the history of the caliphate is paved, painted and tainted with ethnic cleansing, mass murder, genocide and blood and their cruelty to those that they attacked, conquered and enslaved was legendary.
“They utterly humiliated, broke down and destroyed their subjects and took everything away from them including their dignity, liberty, land, identity, religion and culture.
“Worse of all they effected a relentless “scortch the earth” policy, burnt everything in sight, raped ALL the women, enslaved ALL the children, took millions of lives and even slaughtered the animals.
“That is the history of the caliphate and Fulani conquest and not the rosy picture that Professor Ladbo and other historical revisionists seek to paint.”
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